When you buy a car in KSA your ownership proof is the Vehicle Registration card (Car Registration), which is commonly known as “Istimara” in Arabic. Your Istimara needs to be valid in order for you to sell your car. It will have certain expiry date mentioned on it. Mind that the date will be in Arabic and in Hijri calendar, to translate them into English use the following table:

Then to convert that date from Hijri to Gregorian you can use any online service or a mobile app. Tip: I also put a reminder of that date in my calendar.

Istimara can be renewed till the end of 1 month after expiry date without penalty. For Istimara renewal the 1st step is to renew the ‘Fahas’ or MVPI (Motor Vehicle Periodic Inspection) of your car. Fahas aims to:

Improve quality of vehicle maintenance.

Minimize traffic accidents.

Maximize vehicle's service life.

Protect the environment.

Keep road users safe including drivers, passengers, and the pedestrians.

MVPI or Fahas is a sticker on top-right corner of car’s windscreen. It displays in which Hijri month the Fahas will expire. So if your car’s Fahas is out of date, you need to get it renewed first. Fahas is a car inspection in which a government designated workshop (Moody International) checks if you car is good enough to stay on roads. For that they perform a number of tests. If your car passes all those tests, you get the above mentioned sticker and the “Passed” certificate.

Then take your car for Car Wash from beneath. This helps washing away any small oil leakages etc. Car Wash from under the car is not commonly available in Riyadh. I got my car washed from this location:

Visit MVPI (Motor Vehicle Periodic Inspection) (Moody International) for the Fahas. Recommended time is early in the morning around 6:30am to avoid long queues. I reached there around 7:40am and got free by 8:25am. The location is as follows:

Upon reaching there you will find multiple queues of cars, pick any queue and follow it till you reach the counter (you will stay in the car all the time). Give your old Istimara and SR73 on the counter and he will provide you with a receipt. The form will have following information:

Date and Time of your arrival

Receipt #

Car # plate and make details

Inspection type and items

Payment Information

While following the cars queue you will reach the entrance of a big workshop, you will be asked to step out of the car at that point, give the above receipt to the person working there and find a fence on your right or left, walk behind that, your car will be mainly tested for the following:

Headlights

Taillights

Brake Lights

Parking Lights

Indicators

Light Beams

Horn

Wipers

Wiper Rubbers

Foot Brakes

Hand Brake

Visible and Prominent Damage to car

Tires

Wheel Alignment

Wind Screen Cracks, Minor 1-2 inch cracks are OK

Visibility Issues

Back View Mirrors

Side View Mirrors

No Black Smoke or huge smoke from Car silencer (too much carbon)

Oil Leakage

Damages under the Vehicle.

Detailed list is as follows:

Once your car reach at the end of the workshop, you will receive your Fahas report from a counter there. If they paste the new Fahas sticker on the windscreen of your car then your car has passed Fahas.

If you fail to pass Fahas on first attempt then 2nd time onwards the fee will be SR24. If you do not pass the first time, it is OK. Understand the issues they found out (it will be on a paper they will give you) and get them fixed. There will be many workshops just around MVPI center and those mechanics are experts in getting such defects remove (or hide). Even though they charge too much but they know how to “cheat” the MVPI. So if you wish, you can immediately take it to any mechanic outside the center, get the issue fixed, and take your car back for inspection the same day.

After Fahas pay the fee of Istimara renewal online. For that login to your internet banking ( Riyadh bank/AlRajhi bank etc) and pay for registration renewal via SADAD. The “Sadad Government Payment” section will have a biller name of “Motor Vehicles” and under this there will be an option of “Renew Vehicle Registration”. Note that the system will automatically calculate the amount of renewal fee based upon your car including any fines that you need to pay. You can simply pay it in few clicks. For cars it is 150 SR for 3 years.

After that login to your account in MOI website (moi.gov.sa ), on the left side go to section "Traffic" and then to "Vehicle Services". There you will see details about your vehicle like number plate details etc. On the right side there is a link for "more details". Click on it and you will find a link at the bottom for "Renew vehicle Registration". Click on it and follow the onscreen directions. It will ask for 8 digit vehicle sequence number, you can find it on lower right of Istemara just above the barcode. If you have 7 digit sequence number on Istimara then you may add a zero before the first digit ex: 423xxxx1,will be 0423xxxx1 in order for the system to accept it. After finishing the process it will give a receipt showing that your registration is renewed successfully. You need to print this receipt.

After completion of the renewal process via online, take this receipt and current ISTAMARA to any Traffic Police department (“Maroor” as it is called in Arabic) near your location to have your Istimara printed. There will be a section for issuance and renewals of vehicle registrations, so go there. Take number and wait for your turn. If all goes as expected, you will get a new Vehicle Registration card then and there. I went to Maroor Office at 9am and I got free in just 10min.

Problem: I did Vehicles Inspection 'Fahas' but for some reason it does not show on my MOI portal under vehicles details. when I click "Renew Istimara", it gives a message that "No Inspection Certificate found".

Solution: Been from the MOI outlet at Riyadh gallery, shown the receptionist my problem (INSPECTION CERTIFICATE NOT FOUND).He then compared my data between MVPI Fahas and Estemara. It turned out that the mvpi guys made a one letter mistake in chasis number.

The MOI guy advised me to call the call-center and have it corrected : 011-2461220 [7am ~ 12pm noon], I did so, waited for a few minutes, then tried renewing again thru MOI website.

Alhamdulillah, the error was gone & now it says goto nearest traffic police office to collect the new estemara. Hope this info helps someone.

Dependents Owning a car (Istemara on their own name) may easily follow all the above steps EXCEPT logging into MOI and printing the required receipt(as dependents cant register into MOI). They may explain their exceptional case to TRAFFIC POLICE MANAGER available nearby renewal counters,who will confirm your details and provide you with NO OBJECTION note which you can submit to the available counters and grab your renewed istemarah in no time.

72 comments:

Thanks brother for a detailed description, however I have a slight issue. I did Vehicles Inspection 'Fahas' but for some reason it does not show on my MOI portal under vehicles details. when I click "Renew Istimara", it gives a message that "No Inspection Certificate found". Any ideas what is going wrong? would highly appreciate your response and help.

I have not heard about this issue before, I will suggest to go to Fahas workshop again, to their office and inform about your issue, maybe they made a mistake while updating it in their system and it can rectified there.

Another suggestion is to go to Traffic Police office and check your Fahas status there, if its valid then that means you can renew your Istamara by paying the money through ATM etc

Been from the MOI outlet at Riyadh gallery, shown the receptionist my problem (INSPECTION CERTIFICATE NOT FOUND).He then compared my data between MVPI Fahas and Estemara.It turned out that the mvpi guys made a one letter mistake in chasis number.

The MOI guy advised me to call the call-center and have it corrected : 011-2461220 [7am ~ 12pm noon]

I did so, waited for a few minutes, then tried renewing again thru MOI website.Alhamdulillah, the error was gone & now it says goto nearest traffic police office to collect the new estemara.

Hope this info helps someone.Thanks to Nauman Bhai for keeping up a GREAT blog!

I went to MVPI in Jeddah this morning for my car inspection, but failed due to some leakage in the silencer, went to the mechanic and took my car to their workshop nearby and told me that its fixed. I paid him SR 180. Went back to the MVPI paid SR 24 (second time) failed the inspection with the same reason, went back to the same mechanic he did some soldering and went back to MVPI paid SR 24 but failed again with the same reason!!!! Ii have some arguments with the mechanic and he return back my cash and then I went to another mechanic he asked SR 80 to fix the issue, but he didn’t take the money at the time of repair and he asked me to go to the MVPI and come back, I went again this is the 4th time I paid SR 24 Alhamdulillah I passed the inspection. The first mechanic didn’t find the leakage he was soldering in the wrong places.

Dependents Owning a car (Istemara on their own name) may easily follow all the above steps EXCEPT logging into MOI and printing the required receipt(as dependents cant register into MOI). They may explain their exceptional case to TRAFFIC POLICE MANAGER available nearby renewal counters,who will confirm your details and provide you with NO OBJECTION note which you can submit to the available counters and grab your renewed istemarah in no time.

As far as I understand, the car is under the ownership of the bank, until they transfer it to your name. So the renewal of Istemara is also their responsibility. I just checked with a friend who is in a similar situation. He gets the MVPI done and then gives a copy of his Driver's Licence and MVPI to the bank, and they will take care of this. You should be able to pick a fresh copy from them in 3-4 days. HTH.

Slight change on the end process. Now you don't need to go to any Police Station. They have made a unified center for Istemara & Driving License Printing. 1. Just renew your Istemara on Absher as mentioned above and go to the center. 2. Provide them your old istemara after waiting your turn (They have a counter system just like Mobily & major banks) and you get your new istemara there and then.

Co-ordinates: 24.737559, 46.799985 Abdul Rahman Ibn Auf Street P.S: You also need to review the customer rep service as GOOD before leaving ;-)

I have to change the ownership of my car. My Istimara and Fahas is valid but unfortunately i have misplaced the Fahas paper. Is it compulsory that we should have this paper or the system will consider that Fahas is valid. If i need to print, from where can i reprint this Fahas certificate. Can anyone help me on this.

Waliqumaslam, Fahas info is in the system but I am not sure if the paper is required while transferring your car, as u must have got a clear picture till now, plz share so that other can take benefit for ur experience.

I need to renew my istimara which will expire in about 1 month now. Can i do it one month before? Secondly my car is on lease from bank so do i have to follow the same procedure as mentioned above or there is any other process?

Hi, I did the same a few days back. My Istemara and Fahas had already expired. They did not complaint about anything, so I got my Fahas done. Then I proceeded to pay Sr.200 into the system account and renew my Istemara online. Finally I collected my Istemara from Jeddah Sahafa Maroor after 2-3 days.

There was a notice of facing fine, if the Istemara is not collected within 7 days.

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Salaam, firstly jazakallahukhairan for this blog, it has helped immensely! I am in Riyadh and I just went to Maroor today the one at Riyadh Gallery Mall as it says in your blog. However now it is not there anymore! The mall guards told me I should go here instead:It is opposite Khurais Road on Abdur Rahman bin Auf Road

Traffic Police E-Services Center

https://goo.gl/maps/Rrrzz9ipr8A2

I went to the above address its on intersection of Abdul Rahman ibn Awf Road with Khurais Road. The officer there confirmed that the one at Riyadh Gallery Mall is closedPlz can u update this important information on your blog. Thank you

yes I just went there on khurais road. It was open at 08:15 pmGot my new istimara in 1 minute. Luckily there wasn't any rush because of the rain but they have a good token ( queuing) system. The gentleman at the counter was very polite. Don't forget to give them a good rating when you visit.

Al rawdah maroor traffic police office 24°43'55"N 46°45'57"E near khurais & khalid bin waleed intersection you hv to go to themaroor manager office he will personally correct the VIN on computer system this is if vehicle id num (VIN) is wrong on rukhsa card once VIN is fixed i.e. Fahas n rukhsa VIN are same the u hv to call fahas office tell them vin is fixed so upload fahas approval to system then u can renew (after paying sr150 via ur bank) istemara to get rukhsa card on the abshir ... this has to b done so the abshir msg INSPECTION CERTIFICATE NOT FOUND disappears once renewal is successful u can goto maroor ofis just off khurais exit26 side rd on rt side in naseem area or marroor off abi bakr as siddiq close to big roundabout (at the back side door sitting area where u give old rukhsa n they print new one)

i have problem with my clearance for exit, i still have my car registration record on moi, howcan i cancel my car registration, without transfer, may ill scrap the vehicle, so i can have my final exit.

Salaams Nauman. Great article. I have a question. My car is in lease with a bank. They have the registration and ownership. I am selling it to someone else who has asked I get a computer checking report on the car. From where can I get one in northern riyadh? There is a government car checking place but do I need the fahas for that or can I pay and get it done without those papers just to get the report?

Waliqumaslam, jazakAllah khair, as far as i know Fahas is not required before the car is 3 years old thus there won't be any report already present for ur car, its better that u ask the buyer to join u, u both can visit any workshop which provides computer testing and get the test done infront of the buyer

yesterdat i did new fahas and i want to renew my istamarah but problem is that fahas not showing in absher,and said the funds for vehicle registrataion renewal are insufficient,tell me what is the solution..

As per the message in TAMM, we need to visit any Almoroor branch to print out the new Istimarah.

We went to Almoroor the next morning to get the new Istimarah, but according to the person at the counter, they cannot give us the new Istimarah because the vehicle is owned by a company and not by a person.

We showed them the authorization from the company to collect the New Istimarah but they said they will not give it to us.

Instead, almoroor said that we have to request the print-out by Post Office.

If you renew Car Driving License from MOI then you get the following options:

Notes- If you wish to collect the document from Muroor Office, please visit one of Muroor offices and branches within 7 days, to avoid getting a 100 S.R violation.- If you want to deliver the Driving license to your postal address (Wasel); please click on (Request Postal Document Delivery). Fees will be applicable. The Driving license card will be delivered within 3 business days (excluding Public holidays) after due payment of Fees.- Old Driving license is under the Owner’s responsibility and it should be securely destroyed. The Owner will be legally responsible if it is found with any other person or being used.

There might be a similar option available now for Istimara renewal as well in MOI but I am not sure about TAMM Service, maybe TAMM service might be able to help u in this regard.

Last week i visited to Mvpi centre to get fahas. But the result is fail and they did not give any paper. they wrote bad chassis. And they told me that u cannot get pass and go to muroor. What i have to do? Any chance to do fahas again? any other solution?

My car's horn is not working. Actually it is not a small issue to get it repaired. The clock spring under the steering is faulty. Replacing which will cost me around 1500 SAR. I don't want to spend this amount only for Horn. Can you confirm if they usually check the horn. If its not working then the test will fail?